Shawn Siegele looks at Eno Benjamin’s breakout game, Christian McCaffrey’s new situation in San Francisco, and plenty more in the Week 7 edition of Zero RB Playbook.
Well, that got exciting. I wrote a big chunk of the Zero RB Playbook Thursday afternoon, and then everything seemed to happen at once. RotoViz favorite Eno Benjamin blew up in Arizona’s dominant Thursday night performance, and Christian McCaffrey found himself with RB whisperer Kyle Shanahan.
I’ll get to McCaffrey in the body of the article, but let’s start with Benjamin. He found his way onto the Zero RB Candidates Countdown due to a combination of four important traits.
Over the last three years, the Arizona Cardinals offense with Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury has been the catalyst for 16 games where an RB scored 20 or more points (David Johnson, 3; Kenyan Drake, 5; Chase Edmonds, 3; James Conner, 5).
Benjamin is interesting because of an impressive track record in college, a physical profile that’s similar to Aaron Jones, and the ability to stick – and rise – as a seventh-round pick.
Player Height Weight Forty Vert Broad Cone Aaron Jones 5’9″ 208 4.56 37.5 127 6.82 Eno Benjamin 5’9″ 207 4.57 39 122 6.97 Jones is one of the two closest athletic comps for Benjamin in the Prospect Workout Explorer, and that was after a college career at Arizona State that was similarly prolific to the one Jones enjoyed at UTEP. Benjamin went over 1,900 yards as a 19-year-old sophomore and caught 81 passes during his three years in college. At 23 years of age currently, he’s no older than several trendy rookies.
After a couple of years of battling to stay in the NFL, Benjamin is ready. His left guard, Justin Pugh, agrees.
“He’s probably been our best outside zone running back that we’ve had on the roster, even last year. He had to learn how to pass protect. And that was really the only thing. You can’t trust a guy to be in the game if you can’t trust him to pick up pass protection and he’s gone night and day from last year to this year.”
All of those elements were on display against the Saints. Benjamin impressed in the passing game and caught four of five targets, including a key 16-yard gain on a third-and-5 in the second half. That play extended a TD drive that allowed Arizona to stretch the lead back to 35-17. He was also electric as a runner, taking his 12 carries for 92 yards and a score that put the Cardinals ahead 42-24. That final scoring drive featured a 15-yard gain on third-and-8, and one of the most impressive TDs you’ll ever see, as Benjamin launched himself backwards (or upside down) to break the plane of the goal line – arms fully extended – a fraction before his body touched the ground.
Those Arizona goal-line opportunities were there as well. From 2020 to 2021, only Indianapolis had more carries inside the 5-yard line. With DeAndre Hopkins back and impressing, the Cardinals were able to extend drives and get in close. Keaontay Ingram scored on a two-yard plunge and was ruled down at the 1-yard line on a separate drive. (One of the two backs would have scored in that instance, but a bad snap led to a four-yard loss.)
Arizona’s new contract with James Conner makes him difficult to demote when healthy, but Darrel Williams probably doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) have a role in this offense going forward.
Checking In on Last Week
The Zero RB Playbook discusses ways to play meaningful developments at the position and looks ahead to moves that might spark trade ideas or look-ahead waiver pickups.
In last week’s article, we talked about . . .
- The possibility of an elite athlete like Deon Jackson posting a big game if Jonathan Taylor missed again. Jackson went off for 28 fantasy points in a game where he scored a rushing touchdown and caught all 10 of his targets for an additional 79 yards.
- The opportunity available for Joshua Kelley, who had finally scored a short-yardage TD and was generating elite peripherals. Sadly, Kelley was injured two snaps into the Monday night affair and is expected to miss multiple weeks. Is it Isaiah Spiller time?
- The collapse of the Chiefs running game. The RB-by-committee then went out and gained 43 yards on 13 carries against Buffalo. Clyde Edwards-Helaire wasn’t targeted, and the Chiefs have given up any pretense of him functioning as a pass-catching back.
- The challenge and opportunity for Darrell Henderson. The Rams are the second-worst run blocking team in football according to the Advanced Team Stat Explorer. That may explain a tiny bit of Cam Akers’ disillusionment. Henderson hasn’t been an elite post-contact runner in his career, but he averaged 3.0 YAC against the Panthers.
Before we jump in, make sure to check out some of our other RB analysis:
- Blair Andrews covers the usage and workload trends for each backfield in the Zero RB Watch.
- Corbin Young takes you behind the scenes of elite RB performances in Advanced RB Stats.
- Angad Uppal helps you take advantage of the schedule in the Buy Low Report.
